The sad spectacle in Jefferson City

I was disturbed on two counts after reading the article by David Lieb (Thursday, “Senate will block GOP parole appointee”).

If, in fact, the governor is exchanging appointments for votes in the legislature, he is no better than the senators and representatives he is so quick to criticize for their unbridled lust for lobbyists’ gifts. If the allegations are true, Gov. Nixon is unfit for office, his further ambitions should be thwarted, and consideration of impeachment might be warranted.

However, that’s not the only disturbing issue. Throughout the article, not a single Republican senator noted whether former Rep. Dennis Fowler was qualified for the appointment to the state parole board, which should be everyone’s principal concern. Instead, they seem concerned only with punishing Fowler for his vote to sustain the governor’s veto of poorly conceived income tax legislation. I’m probably naïve, but I thought legislators were elected to represent their constituents and do what is best for the state of Missouri. Instead, this cabal of senators apparently believes it more important to preserve the purity of the Republican Party as they define it.

I’d like to be proud of my state, but I have to hang my head in shame over the greed and unrestrained ideological warfare so evident in Jefferson City today. For a time, I consoled myself by thinking that at least we’re better than Kansas, but these days I see a legislature whose primary goal is to make Missouri into a poor copy of our western neighbor. Maybe they should all move west to where they would fit right into a system where ideology reigns supreme, but then they’d have to give up those unregulated perks and donations by the myriad special interests that comprise the true government of what was once our fine state.